EDWARD GIBBON: Historical Works, Memoirs & Letters (Including "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"). Edward Gibbon
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target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_ba90007d-b9e5-588e-9ba3-9a1c6ef0915d">27 Hist. August. p. 238. It is odd that the senate should treat Probus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. That prince had received, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintoe relationis. See Capitolin. in Hist. August. p. 24.]
28 See the dutiful letter of Probus to the senate, after his German victories. Hist. August. p. 239.]
29 The date and duration of the reign of Probus are very correctly ascertained by Cardinal Noris in his learned work, De Epochis Syro-Macedonum, p. 96 — 105. A passage of Eusebius connects the second year of Probus with the aeras of several of the Syrian cities.]
30 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239.]
31 Zosimus (l. i. p. 62 — 65) tells us a very long and trifling story of Lycius, the Isaurian robber.]
32 Zosim. l. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239, 240. But it seems incredible that the defeat of the savages of Aethiopia could affect the Persian monarch.]
33 Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are named by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 241,) whose actions have not reached knowledge.]
34 See the Caesars of Julian, and Hist. August. p. 238, 240, 241.]
* It was only under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, that the Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni, invaded the interior of Gaul; under the reign of Probus, they did no more than pass the river which separated them from the Roman Empire: they were repelled. Gatterer presumes that this river was the Danube; a passage in Zosimus appears to me rather to indicate the Rhine. Zos. l. i. p. 37, edit H. Etienne, 1581. — G.
On the origin of the Burgundians may be consulted Malte Brun, Geogr vi. p. 396, (edit. 1831,) who observes that all the remains of the Burgundian language indicate that they spoke a Gothic dialect. — M.]
35 Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But the latter supposes the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kings: if so, it was partial, like the offence.]
36 See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. Ptolemy places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia.
Note: Luden (vol ii. 501) supposes that these have been erroneously identified with the Lygii of Tacitus. Perhaps one fertile source of mistakes has been, that the Romans have turned appellations into national names. Malte Brun observes of the Lygii, “that their name appears Sclavonian, and signifies ‘inhabitants of plains;’ they are probably the Lieches of the middle ages, and the ancestors of the Poles. We find among the Arii the worship of the two twin gods known in the Sclavian mythology.” Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 278, (edit. 1831.) — M.
But compare Schafarik, Slawische Alterthumer, 1, p. 406. They were of German or Keltish descent, occupying the Wendish (or Slavian) district, Luhy. — M. 1845.]
37 Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus: it is surely a very bold one.]
38 Tacit. Germania, (c. 43.)]
39 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 238]
40 Hist. August. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design of reducing Germany into a province.]
41 Strabo, l. vii. According to Valleius Paterculus, (ii. 108,) Maroboduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia; Cluverius (German. Antiq. iii. 8) proves that it was from Swabia.]
42 These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were denominated Decunates. Tacit. Germania, c. 29]
43 See notes de l’Abbe de la Bleterie a la Germanie de Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schoepflin.]
44 See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 81 — 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he seems to confound the wall of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed in the neighborhood of Frankfort against the Catti.
Note: De Pauw is well known to have been the author of this work, as of the Recherches sur les Americains before quoted. The judgment of M. Remusat on this writer is in a very different, I fear a juster tone. Quand au lieu de rechercher, d’examiner, d’etudier, on se borne, comme cet ecrivain, a juger a prononcer, a decider, sans connoitre ni l’histoire. ni les langues, sans recourir aux sources, sans meme se douter de leur existence, on peut en imposer pendant quelque temps a des lecteurs prevenus ou peu instruits; mais le mepris qui ne manque guere de succeder a cet engouement fait bientot justice de ces assertions hazardees, et elles retombent dans l’oubli d’autant plus promptement, qu’elles ont ete posees avec plus de confiance. Sur les l angues Tartares, p. 231. — M.]
45 He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a Numerus, as it was then called, a corps with whose established number we are not exactly acquainted.]
46 Camden’s Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he speaks from a very doubtful conjecture.]
47 Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. According to Vopiscus, another body of Vandals was less faithful.]
48 Hist. August. p. 240. They were probably expelled by the Goths. Zosim. l. i. p. 66.]
49 Hist. August. p. 240.]
50 Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 66.]
51 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 245, 246. The unfortunate orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage; and was therefore more probably a Moor (Zosim. l. i. p. 60) than a Gaul, as Vopiscus calls him.]
52 Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638.]
53 A very surprising instance is recorded of the prowess of Procufus. He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins.
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